South Korea proposes joint, partial management of Demilitarized Zone to US

South Korea proposed to the United States to jointly manage parts of the southern half of the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas, local media reported on Thursday.

The proposal was put forward by South Korea's Defense Ministry as Seoul seeks to secure control over civilian access to the 250-kilometer-long (155 miles), 4 km-wide (2.4 miles) DMZ, Yonhap News reported, citing a source.

At present, the US-led UN Command administers the military buffer zone as the south-side enforcer of the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

After the UN Command raised objections to Seoul's move, the Defense Ministry proposed an alternative under which South Korea's military would oversee entry to areas located south of the barbed-wire fence within the DMZ.

The issue has gained renewed attention after Unification Minister Chung Dong-young voiced support for pending bills aimed at granting the South Korean government control over nonmilitary access to the DMZ.

Chung has also pledged to restore three sections of the DMZ Peace Trail as part of President Lee Jae Myung's broader effort to rebuild inter-Korean trust.

The UN Command, however, has strongly opposed the proposed legislation, saying it is "completely at odds" with the armistice agreement.

"If the legislation passes, a rational, logical, legal interpretation is that the ROK government has removed itself from the armistice and is no longer bound by it," a UN Command official told reporters last month, using the acronym for the Republic of Korea.